For Archias the Poet

Chapter 1

Members of the jury, I may have some natural ability, though I know how little it is. I may have some practice in speaking, and I admit to a fair amount of experience in it. I may also have some understanding of this work gained from studying the best subjects. I admit that I have never turned away from those studies at any time in my life. If I have any of these things, Aulus Licinius here has almost a right to be among the first to claim their benefits from me. As far back as my mind can reach into the past, to my earliest childhood memories, I see that he was the first to encourage me to take up these studies and show me how to begin. His encouragement and teaching shaped this voice of mine. If it has sometimes helped save others, I certainly owe him all the help and protection I can give. He gave me the means to help other people and save them.

No one should be surprised that I say this because his gifts belong to another field, not to the practice and training of a public speaker. I myself have never devoted my whole attention to this one subject. All the arts that develop our humanity have a common bond. They are connected to one another almost like members of a family.

Chapter 2

Still, some of you may find my way of speaking surprising. This is a formal criminal trial, held before a praetor of the Roman people, an outstanding man, and before judges who take their duties very seriously. A large crowd has gathered here. Yet I am using a style unlike not only the usual language of trials but even the ordinary language of the courts.

So I ask you to allow me something suited to this defendant and, I hope, not troublesome to you. I am speaking for a great poet and a deeply learned man. With so many highly educated people gathered here, with your own education and culture, and, finally, with this praetor presiding, please let me speak a little more freely about literature and the studies that develop our humanity. This man has lived a quiet life of study and has had very little experience of trials and their dangers. In defending someone like him, please let me use a style of speaking that is almost new and unfamiliar.

If I find that you grant me this permission, I will certainly convince you of this: Aulus Licinius is a citizen and should not be removed from the citizen body. Indeed, even if he were not a citizen, you should think that he ought to have been admitted.

Chapter 3

As soon as Archias grew out of childhood and moved beyond the subjects usually taught to give children a well-rounded education, he devoted himself to writing. He first began to outshine everyone in the reputation of his talent at Antioch. He was born there into a distinguished family. It was once a busy, wealthy city, full of highly learned people and the finest intellectual pursuits. Later, people throughout the rest of Asia and all of Greece celebrated his visits. Their eagerness to meet him exceeded even the reports of his talent. When he arrived, their admiration exceeded even their expectations.

Greek learning and the arts flourished all across Italy then. The towns of Latium pursued them more eagerly than those same towns do today. Here in Rome, too, they were not neglected, because the state was at peace. So the people of Tarentum, Locri, Rhegium, and Naples gave him citizenship and other rewards. Everyone capable of judging talent thought him worth getting to know and welcoming into their homes.

His reputation had spread so widely that people already knew of him without having met him. He came to Rome when Marius and Catulus were consuls. He was fortunate from the start in those consuls. One could supply great deeds for him to write about. The other could offer not only his achievements but also an interested and attentive audience. The Lucullus family immediately welcomed him into their home, although Archias was still young enough to wear the toga with a purple border. The same household that first supported him as a young man remained his closest friend in old age. This showed not only the brilliance of his talent and learning but also his character and goodness.

In those days, he was a welcome companion to the famous Quintus Metellus Numidicus and his son Pius. Marcus Aemilius would come to hear him. He was a companion of the two Quintus Catuli, father and son. Lucius Crassus valued him. His close friendships bound to him the Lucullus family, Drusus, the Octavius family, Cato, and the entire household of the Hortensii. He received the greatest respect. People who genuinely wanted to learn something from listening to him valued him, and so did even those who only pretended to.

Chapter 4

After quite a long time, he went to Sicily with Marcus Lucullus. When he left the province with Lucullus, he reached Heraclea. This city enjoyed very favorable legal status and treaty terms. He wanted to be enrolled as one of its citizens. Its people agreed to admit him. They thought he deserved it on his own merits, and Lucullus’s influence and standing also helped him secure it.

Silvanus and Carbo’s law granted citizenship “if people had been enrolled as citizens of allied communities, if they had a home in Italy when the law was being proposed, and if they registered with a praetor within sixty days.” Since this man had already had his home in Rome for many years, he registered with the praetor

Quintus Metellus, a very close friend of his. If we are speaking only about citizenship and the law, I have nothing more to say. The defense is complete.

Which of these facts can you challenge, Grattius? Can you deny his enrollment in Heraclea then? Here is Marcus Lucullus, a man whose standing, integrity, and trustworthiness are second to none. He says that he does not merely think this happened: he knows it. He did not hear about it: he saw it. He did not merely attend: he handled the business himself.

Representatives from Heraclea are also here, men of the highest standing. They have come for this trial with official instructions and testimony from their city. They confirm that the city enrolled him.

And now you ask for Heraclea’s official records? We all know that they were destroyed when the records office burned down during the Italian War. You give no answer to the evidence before us. Instead you demand what we cannot produce. That is absurd. You say nothing about what people remember, but insist on written records. You have the conscientious testimony of a highly distinguished man, and the sworn, trustworthy assurance of a town of the greatest integrity. Yet you reject this evidence, which cannot possibly be falsified, and ask for written records that, as you yourself say, are regularly falsified.

Or did he not have a home in Rome? He had made Rome the center of all his affairs and possessions many years before citizenship was granted. Did he fail to declare himself to a praetor? Not at all. The register holding his declaration is the only one from that enrollment and that group of praetors still recognized as an official record.

Chapter 5

Appius’s records were reportedly kept rather carelessly. Gabinius’s unreliability before his conviction, and his downfall afterward, had destroyed all trust in his records. But Metellus, a man of outstanding honesty and restraint, took such care that he went to Lucius Lentulus, the praetor, and to the judges. He told them that an erasure affecting just one name had troubled him. In these records, then, you see no erasure affecting the name of Aulus Licinius.

Given these facts, what reason have you to doubt his citizenship? Particularly since other towns had also put him on their citizen lists? People in Greece freely granted citizenship to many ordinary men with little skill or none at all. So I suppose the people of Rhegium, Locri, Naples, or Tarentum refused this man, whose talent had won the highest praise, something they regularly gave to stage performers!

And consider this. Other people somehow slipped into those towns’ registers, not just after citizenship was granted, but even after the Papian law. Yet this man does not even rely on the other registers where his name appears. He has always wanted to be regarded as a citizen of Heraclea. Is he to be rejected?

You ask for our census records. Of course! Apparently it is not well known that, the latest census found him serving with the army of that distinguished commander, Lucius Lucullus. At the previous census, he was in Asia with the same man, who was then quaestor. At the first census, under Julius and Crassus, no part of the population was registered.

But a census does not establish a right to citizenship. It tells us only that the person on the list was behaving as a citizen then. You accuse this man of not having considered himself entitled to the rights of a Roman citizen even in his own judgment. Yet during those years he repeatedly made a will under our laws. He accepted inheritances from Roman citizens. And Lucius Lucullus, as proconsul, registered him at the treasury for a reward.

Chapter 6

Look for evidence, if you can find any. You will never prove your case against him from either his own judgment or his friends’ judgment of his status.

You will ask me, Grattius, why I take such pleasure in this man’s company. It is because he gives my mind a place to recover from the uproar of the courts, and my ears a rest from the shouting that wears them out.

Do you think I could find something to say every day on so many different subjects without developing my mind through learning? Or could my mind bear so much strain unless I also used learning to relax it?

I freely admit that I am devoted to these studies. Others should be ashamed if they have buried their lives in books so deeply that they can offer nothing to the public good and bring nothing out into the light of day. But why should I be ashamed? Throughout these years, judges, I have never let my own free time keep me from helping anyone in a crisis or serving someone’s interests. Pleasure has never distracted me from them. Even sleep has never held me back.

So who can criticize me? Who has a right to be angry with me if I set aside some time to return to these studies? I ask only as much time as others are allowed for their own affairs, for celebrating festivals and public games, for other pleasures, and for resting their minds and bodies. I ask as much time as others spend on dinners that start early, on board games, or on ball games.

And I have all the more right to this time because these studies also develop my speaking ability. Whatever ability I have, it has never failed my friends when they were in danger. Someone may think that ability matters little. But I certainly know the source from which I draw the principles that matter most.

From my youth, the teachings of many people and my reading of many works convinced me of this: nothing in life deserves our strong desire except praise and doing what is right. In pursuing these, we should count every physical torment, every danger of death or exile, as a small thing. Without that conviction, I would never have faced so many serious struggles for your safety, or these daily attacks by corrupt men.

All books are full of such lessons. The words of wise people are full of them. The past is full of examples. All of them would lie in darkness without the light that literature brings. Greek and Latin writers have left us so many vivid pictures of brave men, not just for us to look at, but also to imitate! In managing public affairs, I have always kept these examples before me. Simply by thinking about such outstanding people, I shaped my own mind and character.

Chapter 7

Someone will ask: “Those great men whose virtues survive in writing—did they actually receive this education you admire so much?”

It is hard to say this of all of them. Still, I have a definite answer. I admit that many people have had outstanding character and courage without formal learning. Their natural gifts, almost divine, have made them self-controlled and responsible without outside help. I would add this: natural ability without learning has led to distinction and good character more often than learning without natural ability has.

But I also insist on this. When an exceptional and brilliant natural ability gains the guidance and training that learning provides, something remarkable and unique usually results.

Among these people I count Africanus, that extraordinary, almost godlike man whom our fathers knew. I also count Gaius Laelius and Lucius Furius, men of great moderation and self-control. And I count the elder Marcus Cato, a very brave man and, for his time, a very learned one. Surely they would never have devoted themselves to literature if it had done nothing to help them understand and develop good character.

But suppose these studies did not offer such great benefits. Suppose people sought only enjoyment from them. Even then, I think you would judge them the most civilized form of mental relaxation, and the one most worthy of a free person.

Other pastimes are not right for every occasion, stage of life, or place. But these studies sharpen the minds of the young and bring pleasure to the old. They add to our happiness when things go well and offer refuge and comfort when things go badly. They delight us at home and do not get in our way when we are out. They stay with us through the night, travel with us, and join us in the country.

Even if we could not take part in these studies ourselves or get a firsthand taste of them, we should still admire them when we see them in others.

Chapter 8

Which of us was so rough and hardhearted that he was not moved by Roscius’s recent death? He died an old man. Yet his outstanding skill and charm made us feel that he should never have died at all. His bodily movements won so much love from all of us. Are we to ignore the amazing movements of the mind and the speed of human talent?

How often I have seen Archias perform, judges! Let me make use of your goodwill here: you have given such close attention to this unfamiliar kind of speech. How often I have seen him make up a large number of excellent verses on the spot, about the very matters being discussed, without having written a single letter beforehand! How often, when asked to repeat his performance, he has treated the same subject with different words and thoughts! As for the things he wrote with care and thought, I have seen them win praise equal to that given to the ancient writers. Should I not love this man? Should I not admire him? Should I not think he deserves every possible defense?

And this is what the greatest and most learned men have taught us. Other fields of study depend on teaching, rules, and trained skill. A poet draws his strength from nature itself. The powers of his mind stir him, and something like a divine breath fills him. So our own Ennius is right to call poets “sacred.” They seem to have been entrusted to our care through some gift and favor of the gods.

Judges, you are deeply cultured men. So let the title of poet be sacred to you. No uncivilized people has ever violated it. Rocks and deserted places answer the human voice. Savage beasts are often calmed by song and stop in their tracks. We have been trained in the finest subjects. Should we not be moved by the voices of poets?

The people of Colophon say Homer was their citizen. The people of Chios claim him as their own. The people of Salamis also claim him. The people of Smyrna insist that he belongs to them, and they have even dedicated a shrine to him in their town. Many others also dispute and compete with one another over him.

Chapter 9

So they seek to claim a foreigner even after his death because he was a poet. Are we to turn away a man who is still alive, who has chosen to belong to us and is legally one of us? Especially since Archias committed all his energy and talent long ago to making the Roman people’s glory and fame known?

As a young man, he wrote about the war against the Cimbri. He even pleased Gaius Marius himself, a man who seemed rather unreceptive to these studies.

No one is so hostile to the Muses that he would not gladly have his hard work celebrated forever in verse. They say that Themistocles, that great Athenian, was asked what he most liked to hear—what performer, what voice. He answered, “The voice of the man who praises my courage best.” In the same way, Marius was especially fond of Lucius Plotius. He thought that Plotius’s talent could make his achievements famous.

Archias has also described the whole war against Mithridates. It was a great and difficult war, with many changes of fortune on land and sea. His books bring honor not only to Lucius Lucullus, a very brave and distinguished man, but also to the name of the Roman people.

Under Lucullus’s command, the Roman people opened up Pontus, which had been protected by its former royal wealth, by nature itself, and by its terrain. Under the same commander, an army of the Roman people, though not especially large, routed countless Armenian troops. It is to the Roman people’s credit that his planning rescued and saved the city of Cyzicus, our very close ally. It escaped the king’s full assault and the very mouth and jaws of the whole war.

That amazing sea battle near Tenedos will always be told and praised as our victory. Lucius Lucullus fought it; the enemy commanders were killed and their fleet was sunk. The victory trophies are ours. The memorials are ours. The triumphal processions are ours. When writers use their talent to celebrate these things, they spread the fame of the Roman people.

Our own Ennius was dear to the elder Africanus. A marble statue of him is even thought to have been placed in the tomb of the Scipios. When someone is praised in this way, he is certainly not the only one honored. The Roman people’s name gains honor too. Cato, this man’s great-grandfather, is praised to the skies. That brings great distinction to what Rome’s people have done. In short, the honors given to all those great men, the Marcelli and the Fulvii, bring credit to us all.

Chapter 10

Our ancestors therefore granted citizenship to the man who had done this, a man from Rudiae. Are we to strip this man from Heraclea of our citizenship? Many cities have wanted to claim him, and the laws have established his place in ours.

Anyone who thinks that Greek verse brings less glory than Latin verse is badly mistaken. Greek is read among nearly all peoples. Latin is confined within its own boundaries, which are very narrow indeed.

So if our achievements extend to the limits of the world, we should want our glory and fame to reach wherever our people’s weapons have reached. This brings great honor to the peoples whose deeds are described. It is surely the strongest reason to accept danger and hard work for anyone who stakes his life on winning glory.

They say Alexander the Great kept so many writers with him to record what he did! Still, at Sigeum, standing by Achilles’ tomb, he exclaimed, “Lucky young man! You found Homer to proclaim your courage!”

And he was right. If the Iliad had never existed, the same tomb that covered Achilles’ body would also have buried his name.

What about our own Pompey the Great, whose good fortune matched his courage? At an assembly of soldiers, did he not make Theophanes of Mytilene a citizen—the man who wrote about his deeds? And those brave men of ours, countrymen and soldiers though they were, felt the attraction of glory. They cheered his action loudly, as though they shared in that same praise.

So I suppose that if the law had not already made Archias a Roman citizen, he could never have persuaded a commander to give him citizenship! Sulla gave it to Spaniards and Gauls. I suppose he would have refused Archias if he had asked! We saw Sulla’s reaction to a booklet a bad poet in the crowd handed him. The man had written an epigram about him, with nothing to recommend it except alternating lines that were rather too long. Sulla immediately ordered a reward for him out of the property he was selling at the time. There was one condition: the man must not write anything else. Sulla thought even a bad poet’s effort deserved some payment. Would he not have wanted Archias’s talent, skill as a writer, and rich command of language?

What about his close friend Quintus Metellus Pius, who gave citizenship to so many people? Could Archias not have got it from him, by asking himself or through the Lucullus family? Metellus was especially eager for people to write about his achievements. He even listened to poets born in Corduba, although their work sounded rather thick and foreign.

Chapter 11

We cannot hide this, so there is no point pretending otherwise. We should admit it openly. All of us want praise, and the best people care most about glory. Even philosophers put their names on the little books they write about not caring for glory. In the very act of dismissing fame and public praise, they want people to praise them and know their names.

Decimus Brutus was a great man and a commander. He decorated the entrances to his own temples and monuments with poems by Accius, his close friend. Then there was Fulvius, who took Ennius with him when he fought the Aetolians. He willingly dedicated the spoils won in war, the spoils of Mars, to the Muses. In this city, commanders have honored poets and the Muses’ shrines almost while still carrying their weapons. Judges wearing civilian togas should not be unwilling to honor the Muses or keep poets safe.

To encourage you to do this, judges, I will now tell you something about myself. I admit that I too have a love of glory. Perhaps it is too strong, but it is still honorable. During my consulship, I worked together with you to save this city and its empire, the citizens’ lives, and the whole republic. Archias has begun to write about those achievements in verse. When I heard what he had written, I thought it was an important and pleasing undertaking. I urged him to finish it. The only payment that virtue asks for its hard work and dangers is praise and glory. Without that reward, judges, why would we spend our very short, limited lives struggling so hard?

Suppose our minds had no sense of anything to come. Suppose all their thoughts stopped at the boundaries that limit our lives. Then they would not wear themselves out with so much work. They would not suffer so much worry and so many nights without sleep. They would not risk life itself again and again. But the best people have a certain strength of character within them. Day and night it drives their minds forward with the spur of glory. It reminds them that people should not stop remembering our names when our lives end. That memory should last for as long as future generations do.

Chapter 12

We who work in politics spend our lives facing these dangers and burdens. Right to the end, we have never had a quiet, idle breath. Can all of us really be so petty as to think that everything will die when we do? Many great people have taken care to leave statues and portraits behind. Those show their bodies, not their minds. Surely we should much rather leave a picture of our decisions and our good qualities, created and refined by the greatest talents. As I was doing everything I did, I already thought I was sowing it like seed in the world’s everlasting memory. After death I may have no awareness of that memory. Or it may have something to do with a part of my mind, as the wisest thinkers have believed. For now, at least, thinking and hoping about it gives me pleasure.

So, judges, protect this man. You can see his decent character confirmed by the high standing of his friends and by how long they have been his friends. You can see that the most distinguished people have sought out his talent. Their judgment should show you how highly to value it yourselves. His legal case is supported by the law’s provisions, his town’s authority, Lucullus’s testimony, and Metellus’s records. Given all this, we ask you, judges, to take him into your protection. If great talent of this kind has any claim to our respect, it is not just a human claim but a divine one too. He has always brought honor to you, your commanders, and what the Roman people have done. He promises to leave a permanent record of praise for what we achieved with you during the recent dangers within our own country. And he belongs to a group that people everywhere have always regarded, and called, sacred. Let your humanity bring him relief, rather than let harshness do him harm.

Judges, I am confident that everyone has approved what I have said about the legal case. As usual, I have kept that part short and straightforward. I have also spoken about this man’s talent and about learning in general, in a way that is unusual in the courts and in legal proceedings. I hope you have taken that part in the right spirit. I know for certain that the man in charge of this trial has.